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The 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid made a high-pitched whirring sound as I scooted down a suburban street in Columbus, Ohio.

It was in EV mode and my goal was to max out the Accord’s fuel economy. It’s a typical challenge from a carmaker that is touting a new high-mileage vehicle.

The Accord Hybrid, a second hybrid try for Honda, is the kind of eco-friendly vehicle everyone expected in the first place. It’s just taken Honda a few years to deliver a fuel sipper with that futuristic electric-car feel. It can cruise at slower speeds in electric only mode and then — when it hits the highway or when the lithium ion battery pack runs low — a gas engine kicks on to help drive the car.

Touting its new Earth Dreams drive train, the Accord Hybrid uses two electric motors and a gas engine to hit 50 mpg in city driving and 45 mpg on highway driving, according to Environmental Protection Agency testing. Around Columbus, I was averaging 70 mpg, according to the on-board fuel read out.

Yes, I readily admit some light-footed driving, nursing the electric motors to pull the car gently instead of mashing the accelerator to kick on the 2-liter four-cylinder engine, which would then eat up my high-mileage numbers.

Ultimately, I finished the short course averaging 68 mpg, placing third with two other journalists topping me with 77 and 74 mpg. Not bad at all, though a few drivers behind me may have thought differently.

Really, overall, the new Accord is not bad at all either. Built on the 2013 Accord platform, the new hybrid delivers solid performance whether hypermiling or just cruising in a more traditional fashion. The sedan is extremely quiet, nicely laid out and arrives with middle-of-the-road looks. It’s certainly not as aggressively styled as the Ford Fusion or Hyundai Sonata, which also have hybrid versions, but it’s sharper than top-selling Toyota Camry. However, fashion has never been the most important factor in the cutthroat midsize sedan segment.

Honda, which had fallen behind other carmakers with its hybrid models, seems to have put the right ingredients together this time, creating a high-tech sedan that comes loaded with creature comforts, safety features and an impressive drivetrain.

Honda plans on launching both a regular gas-electric hybrid and a plug-in hybrid with the Accord. I was only able to drive the regular hybrid.

While they will use different-sized battery packs — the plug-in model uses a 6.7 kilowatt hour pack and the regular hybrid uses a 1.3 kWh pack — both will share the same drivetrain, which consists of a 2-liter four-cylinder engine, running on the more efficient Atkinson cycle, and two electric motors, which Honda calls its Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive (i-MMD) System. All told, the systems produce 196 horsepower.

The drivetrain allows the plug-in and regular hybrid to run as either a series hybrid or parallel hybrid, meaning the gas engine will either power a generator to continue electric only operation or it will help turn the wheels of the car. This is a much different set up than most hybrids, which use the gas engine only to drive the car when needed and then rely on regenerative braking to recharge the batteries.

It’s only noticeable that you’re in EV mode via a light on the dash. Otherwise, it’s almost impossible to tell when the gas engine is running and when it is not because the Accord is so quiet.

Like many other hybrids, Honda includes electric power steering, low rolling resistant tires, and adds to that an electric air-conditioning compressor and water pump to minimize parasitic losses to the engine.

Honda has created a more efficient regenerative braking system it calls Electro Servo Braking, which uses a hydraulic braking system that is activated by an electronic actuator. The result is much more responsive brakes that don’t have that mushy feel some hybrids offer. The regenerative braking part begins the moment the driver removes his foot from the accelerator — though it’s not so aggressive as to cause the car to slow noticeably. (There is a braking mode on the gear shifter, which allows for more aggressive regeneration.)

The electronic continuously variable transmission also works better than most CVTs. It avoids heavy whines and provides nice pauses during heavy acceleration to give it a feel of a regular gear-based slush box.

Overall, this hybrid feels more like a regular car if you want something that just rides quietly, gets good fuel economy and has enough power to cruise at 80 mph on the highway — something no one should do for very long in Ohio.

The steering is a little numb and the return to center did not have much snap, but my expectation for most midsize sedans is not one of sports-car feel. It’s a family hauler and the Accord, which has entered its ninth generation, will continue to do just that very well.

Honda has also made some improvements to the 2013 chassis by replacing some steel parts of the front sub frame with aluminum pieces, as well as adding an aluminum hood to make the Accord hybrid lighter. The body, however, remains extremely stiff and did not sway much during harder cornering.

On the highway, the Accord was quiet with a modest amount of road noise making its way into the cabin. However, Honda has added an active noise cancelation system to the cabin to help rid it of some noise.

Inside the cabin, the Accord Hybrid’s interior is simple and elegant. The center stack is similar to the regular sedan. There’s an 8-inch color screen at the top of the stack with two tiers of buttons and knobs. I find Honda’s telematics system clunky to use via a control knob but everything does work once you get used to it. The dash and seats feel of high quality materials and everything is put together well.

Honda also uses that screen to display its LaneWatch feature that mounts a camera to the passenger side external mirror. The image will show the car’s blind spot, meaning the driver does not need to turn his head 90 degrees to see the blind spot. While a neat piece of technology, I find it mostly pointless. Perhaps the one place it would come in handy is Portland, Ore., where having a peek behind you for bicyclists approaching before making a right-hand turn would come in handy. Other than that, I cannot find a use for it other than to impress passengers.

There are more useful features, though, with the Accord Hybrid, which also come on the regular Accords. Features such as Forward Collision Warning, Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Departure Warning, are quickly becoming required features in this segment. All can make drivers safer.

Add to that all of the standard features on the Accord Hybrid ranging from Bluetooth connectivity and dual climate controls to rearview camera, 160-Watt six-speaker stereo, and the $30,000 price tag seems pretty reasonable.

Mostly, though, the Accord Hybrid feels surprisingly normal. Honda has had a tough go with hybrids, even though it brought the first gas-electric hybrid to America 14 years ago.

During that time, Toyota has gone on to claim hybrid superiority while Honda developed a system that consumers overwhelmingly rejected. Now, with its new system, consumers should find themselves getting exactly what they expected in a hybrid: slow speed electric operation, fewer visits to the pump and a nameplate with a nearly bulletproof reputation.

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